


always in motion

by iamthemagicks



Category: The Pacific (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Circus, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Mutants, Neighbors, Period-Typical Homophobia, Period-Typical Racism, Wing Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 12:02:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18756055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamthemagicks/pseuds/iamthemagicks
Summary: Snafu stood in the doorway of his trailer, smoking the last of his cigarettes, watching the new guy haul his belongings into the trailer next door. The circus had its own mobile home community set up about a hundred yards from the big top. The trailer had been empty ever since Leckie packed up his typewriter and books and hit the road.





	always in motion

Snafu stood in the doorway of his trailer, smoking the last of his cigarettes, watching the new guy haul his belongings into the trailer next door. The circus had its own mobile home community set up about a hundred yards from the big top. The trailer had been empty ever since Leckie packed up his typewriter and books and hit the road. Weren’t much for a writer to do anyway except write ads for the paper. Leckie was too good for that. 

It was a Sunday night, the sun setting orange and red, the evening air humid, smelling of cut grass and horse manure. Snafu stepped out of the shield of his doorway to stretch his wings out to their fullest span. The new guy stopped a moment, cardboard box in hand, to stare at Snafu, shirtless, flexing his feathers. 

“You ain’t seen a mutant before?” Snafu asked, finishing off his cigarette and tossing it into the dirt.

The new guy nods and shifts the box in his hands. “Never seen wings like that though,” he said. “I like them.”

Snafu flexed them again. They were an ocher color, with dark brown stripes, a few spots, making him look a lot like an owl. “Grew them myself,” he answered. “What do they have you here for?”

“I’m the new animal caretaker.” 

“Oh yeah?” He went down another step as he dug through his pockets for his next cigarette. 

The new guy fidgeted with his box as Snafu stared at him. “Yeah. Um, I need to get this inside, it’s kinda heavy. I’ll see you around.” He skittered into his trailer like a mouse.

Snafu watched the a door a moment, like his new neighbor was going to change his mind and pop out, but the door remained closed. So, Snafu lit his cigarette and started to walk around the park, airing out his feathers.

 

*

 

His name was Eugene Sledge and he came to the circus from Alabama. He was a mutant too, though his mutation wasn’t a physical one. He communicated with animals, making him the perfect man for the caretaker position.

“So, you’re like Doctor Doolittle?” Snafu asked as they walked about the menagerie. Fittingly enough, the birds like Snafu because of his wings. A few of the old timers, like Batman the wounded owl, and Ed, the crow, would perch on his shoulders and preen his feathers. 

Eugene chuckled, stopping at the miniature horses. He fed them carrots from a bucket he carried. “They like you,” he said.

“You’re putting me on.”

“I’d never.” Eugene smiled and reached over to pet a mare as she nibbled the vegetable from his hand. “All the animals like you.”

Snafu also pet them. “Probably think I’m one of them.”

Eugene grinned. “Maybe.” He looked Snafu’s feathers up and down, biting on his bottom lip. “What do you do when you have to go to the store or into town or whatever?”

“I can fold ‘em down enough for a trench coat.” He flexed the wings so his preeners would flap away, before pulling them down against his shoulder blades. When he wore the trench coat he looked boxy and stiff, and felt ridiculous. Growing up, he always had to wear thick shirts and heavy coats, so people wouldn’t stare.

Eugene reaches over to touch the tip of a long feather, sending a shudder down Snafu’s back. “They’re real pretty,” Eugene said, voice low and thick. He brings his fingers into a fist and shuts his mouth right up.

Snafu clears his throat and eases his wings to their normal stance. “Uh, thanks.” 

 

*

 

People who came to the circus rarely believed Snafu was a mutant and his wings were real. Why would they? The circus is a place full of magic and amazement, oddities and performances, costumes and theatrics. Snafu walked the tightrope, dressed in glittery jackets and tight pants, performing ‘death-defying’ gymnastics on the rope, like bending over backwards, or walking with wings and arms out, balancing various things on his head. A ball, a stack of books, a tea cup on a plate. He juggled knives, or spun a diablo on string. The big finale came when he’d toss the diablo into the air, pretend to fall, and then save himself with his wings, catching the piece as he lowered himself onto the ground.

The crowds always cheered, spilling popcorn and cotton candy onto the bleacher seats. He loved the sound of the applause, and the gasps that came when he stepped off the wire. Sometimes kids found him after the show and asked how he did it.

“Lots of practice,” he told them. 

“Are they real?” the kids always asked.

“What do you think?” He’d move a wing and they’d get a kick out of it, but someone’s snobby mother always called them away, knowing full well that Snafu was a mutant, and who wanted their kids hanging around the circus freak?

One afternoon before showtime, Eugene came to Snafu’s trailer as he prepped, wrapping the balls of his feet with tape. The owl followed Eugene, sitting right on the arm of the couch next to him.

The trailers weren’t big by any means, but they came with the living room, a kitchen, a full-size bed, and a bathroom with a toilet and shower. Bigger than an RV, but not as spacious as the kind of trailers that fill up parks. 

“Doesn’t it hurt your feet?” Eugene asks, watching Snafu with the tape. He bounces himself on his balls and heels, stretching his toes a bit.

He shrugged. “Not as much as if I fall.”

“You fell and lived?” Eugene responded, eyes gone wide.

Another shrug. “Ribbon got caught up in the wings during the fall.” He gestured above his head. “I got one out and made some resistance, but landed on my side. Shattered my arm, broke my ankle. Outta commission for the summer.” He walked out of the trailer with Eugene behind him, owl on his shoulder. 

“Aren’t you afraid of fallin’ again?”

Snafu grinned. “All the time. I just don’t use ribbon anymore.” He winked and continued to the staging area in the main tent, going for his first costume. 

Among the other performers, like the magician Flo and her assistant Burgie, Snafu started to unabashedly change, dropping his trousers and briefs as he went for the tight pants from his trunk.

Eugene looked away, but only after running his eyes from Snafu’s toes up to his hair, pausing for the shortest of moments at Snafu’s groin. Snafu chuckled, pulling on the show trousers and zipping up. 

“Jesus, Snaf,” Flo scoffed, pushing by him to dig through his trunk of clothes. “There are ladies back here.”  
“Oh yeah, where?” He also started digging. She stuck out her tongue at him.

Burgie laughed, adjusting his top hat, watching everyone from a full length mirror near a wardrobe. “Careful, she’ll make you disappear.”

“Yeah, she wishes,” Snafu snorted. He found the waistcoat he wanted and draped it over his shoulders. All of his shirts were tailored for his wings, holes cut in the back for the base of his bones, then with buttons or zippers underneath so he didn’t have swatches of fabric billowing in the wind. 

Eugene’s were still wandering around, looking anywhere but directly at Snafu. His cheeks were burning as red as his hair. “Hey, Gene,” Sanfu said, backing up towards him. “Zip me up.”

“Excuse me?”

“The zippers.” He gestured. “Right under the wing, keeps the shirts on.”

Eugene starts to feel around under the first wing, fingers running delicately over the down feathers near the bone. Snafu did his best to contain the moan in his throat, but Eugene’s knuckles also brushed the patch of skin in the middle of his back and Snafu couldn’t help but let out a contented sigh. 

Quickly, Eugene zipped up both sides and stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Um, I have to go feed the elephants before showtime,” Eugene said, clearing his throat. He didn’t even wait for a goodbye before turning around, owl still on his shoulder, as he headed for the back flap of the tent.

Flo laughed right out loud, just as bright and shining as her smile. She pulled on a pair of fishnet stockings. “He’s so cute,” she said. “I bet he’s a cherry.”

“That’s tempting, doll,” Snafu replied, looking again in the trunk. There was something so oddly romantic and intimate about taking someone’s virginity. “But I like a man with experience.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. Flo was prettier than a picture, her dark hair and blue eyes, and she always painted her lips and nails blood red. “Your ladies, too?” She leaned in for a kiss, which he took, but only briefly. “Wanna come back to our trailer tonight?” 

“Maybe some other time,” he answered, pulling a tie over his head.

Burgie chuckled. “I think maybe Snaf has a crush.”

“Shut up.” 

The show went on as planned, but as Snafu went over backwards to grab the wire, he thought he spotted Eugene at the back curtain near the patron entrance.

 

*

 

Each night after the show, while Snafu was drenched in sweat with eyeliner and glitter running down his face, Eugene walked with him from the big top tent the half mile to the circus trailer park. Snafu liked the night, away from the crowd so he could stretch his wings out to their fullest width, airing them out. Eugene always gave him the room he needed while talking. 

“Did you just decide to run away and join the circus?” Snafu asked one night, lighting a cigarette.

Eugene walked with his hands stuffed in his pockets. They walked under a full moon, the world around them cast in a silvery-blue light. Eugene’s hair looked brown instead of red, his eyes black. He shrugged at the question. “Innit everyone’s dream to join the circus?”

“Not when you’re thirty.” He exhaled smoke through his nose.

Eugene kicked a rock in his way. “Hey, I’m twenty-nine.”

Snafu chuckled and rubbed at his stomach. Eugene continued. “My mutation ain't physical, but when people found out about it, I got run outta town pretty quickly.”

“Who would even believe that?” He laughed again. By all means, Eugene looked like a perfectly normal homo sapien. No horns, no extra appendages, or even different colored skin. 

Under the moonlight, Eugene’s smile looked enticing like a fairy tale. “Even so,” he continued. “My parents didn’t like it too much when they caught me suckin’ cock either.” 

Snafu choked on his smoke a moment and tried to pass it off as a laugh. “Damn, Sledge, didn’t think you were that interesting.”

It was another four months before Snafu became brave enough to push Eugene against the outside of his trailer. Eugene smiled into Snafu’s mouth as his hands raked up and down Eugene’s ribs, slipping under his t-shirt.

“What took you so long?” Eugene muttered through the kiss, resting his hands against Snafu’s slim waist. 

Snafu pressed their foreheads together. “‘Cause I’m stupid.” Because Eugene was kind and handsome, and he didn’t have a physical mutation so he could have anyone he wanted, live some kind of normal life. 

Eugene dragged a hand across Snafu’s chest, knuckle purposefully circling one of his dark nipples. Snafu arched into the touch, wings stretching to their fullest point. “It took everything I had to tell you I got caught,” he chuckled. 

“I didn’t want you to think I was a creep,” Snafu answered, moving for a kiss again. “I’ve wanted to jump your bones for a while.”

Eugene’s nails scrape the skin of Snafu’s sides. “Mmm, please.” 

Inside Eugene’s trailer (which is a lot nicer than Snafu’s and he made a mental note to complain to Burgie), on a denim clad couch in the living room, Eugene rode Snafu’s cock, looking positively divine; pretty pink mouth slacked open, red hair pushed in different directions from sweat and Snafu’s fingers. 

“Jesus, Gene,” Snafu moaned, moving hands down to Eugene’s hips, gripping him tightly. 

“Yeah?”

He leaned forward to kiss and then bite at Eugene’s bottom lip. “God, I can’t believe I thought you liked women. You’re so fuckin’ good at ridin’ me.”

Eugene grinned, taking Snafu’s chin in his fingers, like Snafu was something small and breakable. “I do,” he said. “I like women, too.”

“Fuck,” Snafu growled, thrusting upward particularly hard, causing Eugene to let out a high pitched gasp. “We could get Flo with us one time. ‘Course that means gettin’ Burgie, too, but he’s--”

Eugene silenced him with a kiss on the mouth, tongue slipping past his lips and teeth. “I only want you,” he said.

Snafu pauses his movements, staring up at Eugene, pretty hazel eyes almost black with lust, his hair looking ridiculous but sexy at the same time. He ran his hands up and down Eugene’s pale thighs, heart pounding like a drum against his ribs. This beautiful man who loved animals more than he loved people, for some reason wanted him. It was going to be more than just a fuck, he realized, new warmth moving through him. 

Eugene swallowed; Snafu could tell he was started to regret his admittance since Snafu was going so long without an answer. “Me too,” Snafu said, tilting his head up for another open mouthed kiss.

There was little lighting in the room, just a side-table lamp and moonlight. It made Eugene’s white skin look especially pale, almost like a vampire. “‘M getting close,” Eugene said, breath hitched.

Snafu raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, pretty boy?” 

Too close to argue or carry on banter, Snafu assumed, Eugene simply nodded, moving hands from Snafu’s shoulder, dragging them back towards his wings. At first it seemed like a casual touch, knuckles against the feathers; Snafu tried not to think too much on it, but then Eugene’s hands gripped the arch of both his wings, sending that wonderful tingle of pleasure through Snafu’s body, right down to the groin.

“Fuuuck,” he groaned, thrusting harder.

Now Eugene raised an eyebrow, curious and pleased. “You like that, Snaf?” He ran palms with the grain of his feathers.

Snafu nodded and took one of his hands to wrap around Eugene’s cock, slick with pre-come and his spit from earlier. “Keep doin’ it, please,” he said as he started to loosely jerk his hand around Eugene. “And I’ll keep doin’ this.” 

Not five minutes later, Eugene came all over Snafu’s hand and both their stomachs, almost to his own chest. His orgasm caused him to grip tightly around Snafu’s wings with beautiful pressure, knocking Snafu over the edge. He pulled Eugene closer with his free hand, burying his head in the crook of Eugene’s shoulder, biting into the sweaty skin there, hard enough he knew there’d be a lovely bruise. He couldn’t wait to see it in the upcoming days.

They sat there a while, sweaty and covered in come, Snafu’s wings spread out and limp against the couch. “That was amazing,” Eugene said, hands moving from wings to hair. Snafu lolled his head with Eugene’s fingers.

“Fuck yeah.” 

“Is it always a turn on, havin’ your wings touched?”

Snafu put his head back to get a better view of Eugene still straddling him. “Not always. It’s kinda like gettin’ a hickey or scratchin’ down your back. Just makes everything better.” 

“Hmm.” Eugene leaned forward for a kiss. 

The wings prevented them from showering together, but afterward, clean and smelling of lilac soap, they arranged themselves in Eugene’s bed. He was the kind of guy that made it each morning, sheets pulled and tucked neatly into the mattress and over the pillows. 

Snafu laughed as Eugene pulled back the covers and fluffed the pillows. “You’re so fuckin’ cute,” he said. 

Eugene rolled his eyes. “Thanks.” He started to crawl into the bed. “So, how does this work? I mean, How do you sleep with those?”

“Usually on my stomach.” He stretched them out real quick, then brought them back to his shoulders. “Don’t worry your pretty head about ‘em.” He also got into the bed, rolling to his stomach. Eugene moved further down the bed, setting his head on the pillow. 

“Are you going to be here in the morning?” Eugene asked.

Snafu quirked an eyebrow. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Eugene shook his head and leaned forward for a kiss. “No reason.”

The bed creaks with any little movement; Snafu traced Eugene’s bottom lip with his thumb, then down to his chin. They stared at each other in the darkness, Snafu’s chest feeling full and warm. Eugene game him a smile before closing his eyes.

 

*

 

They both had daddies who were not affectionate and distant; of course, Snafu’s daddy was a mean drinker who often slapped him and his sisters around. Eugene’s daddy just ignored him in favor of an older brother. Eugene was the first mutant in generations, according to his heartbroken mother, but the only queer. 

“As far as _you_ know,” Snafu said with a chuckle. They sat on the his tightrope dock, Snafu on the edge, legs dangling, Eugene with his back pressed against the pole. 

Eugene grinned, but his eyes were glossed over from the bottle of sweet wine they split. “I miss my momma, though,” he said, tilting back his head. “I won’t forget how she looked at me when I tried to explain what I was.”

Snafu stretched out a wing. “A mutant?”

He shook his head. “Queer. Kind of. I mean, what do you call someone who likes boys and girls?”

Snafu put a hand on Eugene’s knee. “A goddamn treat.” He smiled and Eugene smiled back at him. 

They spent all of their time together before and after shows, and Eugene always watched Snafu’s act. Each time Snafu did his fake fall, he saw a strike of fear in Eugene’s eyes, then relief when he caught himself with his wings.

After that first night together, when Eugene discovered that Snafu’s wings were sensitive to the touch during physical intimacy, he started testing out Snafu’s responses. Running fingers through the large feathers while they sat on porch stairs drinking, gentling stroking near his shoulder blades as they kissed, lifting a wing as Snafu slept and getting to the underfeathers with the back of his knuckles. It all garnered the same reaction (much to Eugene’s pleasure): a pleased sigh, a small groan or growl, and Snafu’s mouth on his.

“You like teasing me,” Snafu grunted into Eugene’s mouth, pinning him to the bed. His wings were open and spread out like an angel.

Eugene chuckled. “A little.” He canted his hips into Snafu’s so he could feel. 

Snafu licked into Eugene’s mouth, nipping at his bottom lip, hand working its way up Eugene’s chest to his neck, giving it a soft squeeze. “D’you like my wings?”

“Yeah.” Eugene tried to move, but Snafu was stronger than he seemed. He kept Eugene pinned down with his own hips and one hand. 

“Do you wanna fuck them?” He moved the hand from Eugene’s neck to cup his chin. 

Eugene blinked wildly, mouth going slack at the idea. “Seriously?” He tilted his head in the pillow. “That’s somethin’ that you’d like?”

“Wouldn’t offer if it wasn’t.” Snafu loosened his grip and nosed down Eugene’s neck to his shoulder, biting down on the skin. “It feels really good,” he promised, “and I want you.” He suddenly felt shy about it, silly to ask. What a ridiculous thing to ask. 

But Eugene’s dumbfounded mouth turned wicked, eyes blown almost black with lust. “Yeah,” he answered, “hell yeah.” 

Snafu bent down for a filthy kiss before releasing Eugene from the mattress. Eugene’s legs got tangled in his blue jeans as he rushed to remove them, giving Snafu a good laugh. He took off his own pants calmly and then reached up to give his erection a few tight strokes. They were both already shirtless, a sheen of sweat covering their skin.

“So,” Eugene began, kicking the leg of his jeans off his foot; he wasn’t wearing underwear. “How do I...how do we do this?” He had a giddy grin on his face and he reached to start running his fingers through feathers.

Snafu tilted forward for a kiss, jutting his hips towards Eugene so their cocks touched. “I could kneel in front of the wall,” Snafus said. “Or on the bed--”

“The bed,” Eugene answered, eagerly. 

Snafu had to laugh as he stepped towards the mattress; few of his partners had been so excited about his wings. He’d been fucked by men and women who just wanted to tick off mutant on their bucket list, he’d been with people who wanted his mouth and his cock, but did their best not to comment or even look at his wings. But Eugene….Eugene looked at his wings like they were something magical, a gift, not some genetic defect. 

Eugene took Snafu by the hips, fingers curling tightly over the bone, and motioned for another kiss. He kissed gently and fiercely, he could be tender and soft, or hungry and rough. Everything Snafu looked for in a partner. He pressed their foreheads together and scratched down Eugene’s back, marking his shoulder blades. 

“Jesus, Snaf,” he moaned, lurching forward. “Get on the bed.” 

Snafu grinned smugly as crawled onto the mattress, stretching out his whole body and giving his wings a final spread. Eugene was on top of him in an instant, straddling his hips and bending over to kiss at Snafu’s neck. “I still don’t know how to do this,” he growled, grinding down on the small of Snafu’s back. 

“You’ve topped before, haven’t you?” he looked over his shoulder and Eugene just gave him an exasperated look. Snafu chuckled and reached into his bedside table for a small bottle of some fancy oil that Flo bought to keep her skin smooth and glowing or whatever. He took it out of the dressing room for his feathers. He tossed the bottle to Eugene.

“Rose hips?” he read. 

“Put it on yourself, then on my wings, by the shoulder blades. Trust me, Gene, this is gonna be amazing.” 

Eugene popped open the lid. “I trust you.” There was something soft and genuine in his voice that made Snafu arch back for a kiss. One of Eugene’s hands snaked around Snafu’s waist, scratching at his lower belly before grabbing his cock. 

“Fuck, baby,” Snafu groaned. 

Snafu went back on his stomach, bringing his wings close to his body, as if he were about to go out in his trench coat. Eugene seemed to get the idea; he shifted and moved forward, straddling Snafu on the back, getting the wings under his thighs. “Right here?” he asked, rolling his hips, his cock moving between the space made from the folded wings. 

Snafu groaned. “Yesss. Fuck, right there baby. Use the oil.” 

“Alright.” 

Snafu felt drops of oil hitting his back as Eugene situated himself, then spreading the oil between his shoulder blades and on the edges of his wings. He held his breath, and then Snafu felt the velvet smooth drag of Eugene’s cock against his back and between his wings. “Oh, my, God,” he groaned. 

“Yeah?” Eugene said, “you like that?”

“Fuck yeah,” Snafu replied, rolling his hips into the mattress. 

“You’re so soft,” Eugene gritted out, starting with a slow thrust. He leaned forward to brace his hands on the headboard. “But it’s _tight._ ”

Snafu moaned and nodded, pleasure moving all over his body. Eugene began thrusting, slow, but purposeful; Snafu could feel Eugene’s thighs straining against his wings. As Eugene fucked into him, he wanted to spread the wings, flutter the furthest wings as his writhed in pleasure, but being held down made it better. 

“This is…” Eugene muttered. “God, this is fantastic.”

“Yeah?” Snafu grinned, looking back over his shoulder. 

Eugene just nodded, face twisted into that mix of pleasure and affection. He sped up a bit, thrusted harder; Snafu heard his nails scraping the wood of the headboard. Like a teenager, Snafu was rutting his own erection in the sheets, against the mattress, the friction above and below him intoxicating. His thrusts against the mattress kept time with Eugene, and he groaned into the pillow. “Jesus, Gene.” 

“I know,” Eugene replied, speeding up again. “I know.”

One of Snafu’s hands reached back to his ribs where he found Eugene’s knee. He squeezed it and scratched the skin. “Keep goin’,” he begged.

“Yeah. Fuck, yeah,” Eugene said. He held tighter to the headboard, but the bedframe still creaked and moved with his rapid movements. After a few more good and calculated thrusts, he muttered that he was close.

“Good,” Snafu said, voice low and thick. “Come all over my wings.”

Eugene groaned. “Fuck.”

After a few more thrusts, Eugene was done, and Snafu felt the warm come spurt over his back and a neck, and just a bit in his hairline. But Eugene kept going until he heard Snafu’s own strangled moan as he came into the sheets.

They stayed that way for a few minutes, catching their breaths, sweaty and heady. Eugene shifted first, doing his best to bend down to give Snafu a kiss on the ear. Then he started laughing. “I got come in your hair.”

Snafu also chuckled. “It happens.” 

Eugene climbed off Snafu’s back and the bed. He grabbed a discarded shirt from the floor to clean each other up before dropping at Snafu’s side, still laying blissed out on his stomach. “That was amazing,” Snafu slurred. 

Eugene laughed again. “I bet you tell that to all the boys.”

“Never.” He pushed himself up and over, avoiding the mess he’d made in the center of the bed. “I ain’t had somebody who did it that good.” He scratched at his neck before reaching to the table for cigarettes. 

“For real?”

“Most people don’t like them,” he confessed, clicking his lighter open and shut a few times. Eugene fished out his own cigarette and waited. “The mutant thing.” He lit both cigarettes and leaned back against the headboard.

Eugene shook his head, taking a puff on the cigarette. “They’re dumb. Small minded.” 

Snafu nodded and shrugged. Eugene didn’t understand, not really. He was a mutant, sure, but people didn’t know just by looking at him. And maybe he did runaway because he was caught sucking cock, but that wasn’t something you’d know by looking at him, not that Snafu thought. Snafu’s mutation was right there in the open. Walking down the street, people knew, they saw. 

“I love them,” Eugene said. “I think they’re amazing. Like you.”

Snafu laughed out loud, right from his belly. “Amazing, huh? You keep your nose in those books too much.” 

Eugene only smiled and put a hand on Snafu’s thigh, lovingly. They sit in silence to finish their cigarettes before Eugene suggests a shower. “It’s all in your feathers,” he laughed, running a finger though oil and come. 

Where Eugene’s trailer was nicer, but Snafu had the larger shower, specifically because of his wings; Burgie made sure of that. The stall was big enough for Snafu, his wings, and for Eugene to join him. Eugene maneuvered him under the spray first, running his hands through the feathers the whole time. “I’d give up my trailer just for this shower,” Eugene said, reaching for the shampoo bottle. He lathered and got his hands right in Snafu’s wet hair. 

The feeling was intoxicating, almost enough to get Snafu aroused again. He shut his eyes and leaned into Eugene’s touched, draping his wings down. Eugene moved onto the feathers next, sluicing and rubbing like he’d done on Snafu’s head. “Mmm. You’re good,” Snafu said, lazily, licking his wet lips. 

Eugene grinned half of a grin before instructing Snafu to turn around; he did as he was told, leaning forward to press his forehead against the cold tiles as Eugene worked the shampoo through the back feathers. As he runs his fingers through Snafu’s shoulder blades, he stopped at the knotted scars underneath the first layer of feathers. “What’s this?” Eugene asked. 

Sleepy and warm, Snafu barely noticed the question, but glanced over his shoulder to see Eugene’s inquisitive face. “Oh. I cut at ‘em when I was a kid. Filed down to the bone.”

Eugene’s eyebrows furrowed together and his jaw pop open in shock. “Why?”

Snafu shrugged. “Ain’t easy being colored, or a mutant. Or queer on top of that. Somethin’ had to go.” He turned back to the tiles, remembering the feeling of the hedge clippers as he cut off the longest feathers, and then the industrial sized file he used. The memory made his wings twitch, and Eugene leaned forward, pressing his whole front to Snafu’s back, then snaked an arm over his shoulders and across his chest.

“They sent me to an institution,” Eugene said into Snafu’s ear, barely above a whisper. Snafu could barely hear him over the shower water. “My parents, after they caught me and Boyd.” Snafu swallowed. “Then I swallowed a bunch of aspirin, but threw it up. They kept me there for two months before I admitted it was a mistake and only liked girls.” He rested his chin on Snafu’s shoulder and Snafu put his hand over Eugene’s arm at his chest.

He cleared his throat before speaking. “What a pair we are, huh?”

“What a pair,” he echoed. 

 

*

 

Eugene does give up his trailer for the shower, moving his few possessions next door. Snafu watches from the kitchen, shirtless and wearing loose-fitting blue jeans, as Eugene unpacks his things. “You’re gonna have to learn to clean up,” Eugene comments as he shoves something aside with his foot.

“I ain’t a housewife.”

“I ain’t either,” Eugene replies, clearing off a desk he finds in the corner. He sets up a typewriter and some stacks of books and papers. “If I wanted one of those, I woulda stayed in Alabama.” 

Snafu chuckles and crosses the room, picking up clothes and shoes from the floor. “I guess if it don’t work out, you can just go back next door,” he muttered, mostly as a joke, but Eugene stopped moving, which made Snafu look up from his task.

Eugene was staring at him, eyes set as serious as a war. Sometimes Snafu thought that Eugene’s power was more than just communicating with the animals, because he somehow knew what Snafu was thinking, or the deep meaning of his contemplations. Like now, how Snafu was completely ready to spend the rest of his days with Eugene in this single wide trailer, on the back-lot of the circus fairgrounds. 

They share a look that Snafu feels will set the air on fire. But Eugene’s eyebrows raise and he puffs out his cheeks with a sigh before grabbing a pair of blue jeans from the floor. “I’m not movin’ my stuff again.” he tosses the jeans at Snafu’s face, catching him off guard and sending him stumbling backwards, wings flailing. They both laugh, pink-cheeked and giddy. Running away to the circus ain’t a half-bad idea.


End file.
